Former MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Mike Mabuyakhulu in court with his co-accused. Photo: Khethukuthula Xulu
The first witness in the corruption trial of former KwaZulu-Natal MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu and 16 others almost implicated himself in the theft charge of more than R900 000.
The witness, Timothy Mangwedi admitted in court to requesting and receiving R200 000 from one of the accused.
The trial resumed at the Durban high court this week.
Mabuyakhulu along with the others are charged with corruption, theft and money laundering to the value of R28 million.
The money was meant to host the North Sea Jazz Festival in 2012.
While the festival did not materialise, the money was allegedly paid to the service providers.
Mabuyakhulu was the MEC for Economic Development and Tourism in KwaZulu-Natal at the time.
Mangwedi is the co-owner of MPM which partnered with Soft Skills Communication in a joint venture to plan and host the jazz festival.
In his testimony, Mangwedi said his company entered into an agreement with Soft Skills Communication and agreed on a 60/40% profit share agreement.
He said together, the joint venture projected that it would need R30 million to R50 million in funding to host the event successfully, which they secured from the Department of Arts and Culture and Department of Economic Development and Tourism.
However, before going ahead with the main event, the two companies decided to host an activation event in the Netherlands, which had a budget of R1,4 million.
Mangwedi said the activation event was also to officially announce Durban and KZN as the host city and province for the North Sea Jazz Festival and to give delegates the “feel” of the festival.
While we were all in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, accused number seven, Nothando Zungu, who is a member of Soft Skills Communication, informed us that she received R850 000 in the Soft Skills bank account.
I was concerned as to why it was paid into the Soft Skills account and not the joint venture, as we had opened an account together for payment purposes.
Mangwedi then said Zungu told him that Ceaser Mkhize, the owner and member of Soft Skills Communication told her to split the money equally among the four board members of the joint venture, which were Mangwedi, his business partner Charmaine Cornille, Zungu and Mkhize.
I refused to allow the money to be split.
However, I did request that Zungu deposits R200 000 into mine or Charmaine’s account in order to pay the suppliers and other expenses.
At this point of the testimony, one of the defence attorneys in court objected and questioned the judge whether or not Mangwedi was admitting to taking part in the theft, as he had requested that the money be sent to him?
That led to the matter being adjourned and Mangwedi was asked by the judge to seek legal advice before he continued with his testimony.
The state alleges that the key roleplayers in the crime are Mabuyakhulu; Desmond Golding, head of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism; Mkhize, Zungu and Mabheleni Ntuli, the sole member of Supersize Investment 20 CC.
The matter is set down to continue in the high court on Thursday.
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